NC State 24 Georgia Southern 23 [Updated 8/31]

Just when it looked like N.C. State was headed towards a ninth straight loss, Brissett and the Wolfpack offense found another gear for its first win since last September.

Down 17-3 at the half and 20-10 to start the fourth quarter, the Wolfpack took its only lead of the game on Brissett’s 35-yard touchdown pass to running back Matt Dayes with 1:37 left in the game.

Brissett also hit sophomore receiver Bra’Lon Cherry for a pair of touchdowns in the second half and N.C. State’s defense, despite giving up 246 yards on the ground, came up with a big turnover that aided the fourth-quarter comeback.

It was Brissett who made the difference in the second half after a sluggish start. He was 18-for-23 for 213 yards with three touchdowns in the second half, compared to 10-for- 17 for 78 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.

Brissett wasn’t interested in taking any of the credit for the win, though. He was quick to praise his offensive line, which didn’t give up a sack in the second half, the defense, running back Shad Thornton (10 carries, 73 yards) and receiver Bo Hines (nine catches, 85 yards).

[snip]

On the first play of the fourth quarter, the Eagles led 20-10 and then held the Wolfpack on fourth-and-1 from the 9-yard line.

Quarterback Kevin Ellison, who ran for 116 yards and threw for 184, led the Eagles down to the Wolfpack 1-yard line on the subsequent drive. On second-and-goal from the 1, Ellison lost his footing and then lost the ball. N.C. State defensive tackle Monty Nelson came out of the pile with the ball.

Brissett led a 12-play, 99-yard drive to cut the Eagles’ lead to 20-17. Brissett completed six passes on the drive, including three to Hines, before finding Cherry wide open in the middle of the field for an 11-yard score.

The Eagles responded with a quick drive into Wolfpack territory but with Ellison shaken up after a 52-yard run, they had to settle for a 31-yard field goal and a 23-17 lead with 3:35 to play.

Brissett went 8-for- 9 on the final drive and hit Dayes down the right sideline for the game-winning score. Last year, with Brissett sitting out after transferring from Florida, that might have ended with a turnover and a loss but not with Brissett.

See the game winning TD below:

Those boys rallied and saved us all from a monster meltdown. Good work with the #STATEment

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook
View all posts by StateFans →

When your team hasn’t won in nearly a year, you have to take what you can get.

Props to the Pack for pulling a GYST the last five minutes of the game. Brissett got better as the game went on, and he definitely showed leadership skills on the last two drives.

Boos to Georgia Southern for going to the VT/Dooley well with “well-timed” injuries. That’s bush league crap and I think that the NCAA should change the rules to where 1) the team with the injured player cannot go to the sidelines for instruction without taking a timeout and 2) the injured player must sit out the rest of the series if he is helped off of the field.

Just got in from game. Have not read any comments or read any articles. My thoughts:

Impressed by Georgia Southern. They are a good team. Remember, they beat Florida last year. Yes, they have a new coach, but this coach was in the FCS finals the last two years. Over the full course of the game, GSU was definitely the better team. Was it only fatigue that cost them the game, or did it take a while for the real Wolfpack team to settle in and start executing? Time will tell.

First half we were an inch short but a mile away. Brissett overthrew two open TD’s. Assume it’s rust from a 2 year layoff and too much Favre-like early game adrenaline. Hopefully, anyway. Offense would get in a nice grove, humming along, then one play/mistake would kill the drive.

Said at the 3rd/4th qtr break I don’t care if we convert or not, going for the 1st down would be stupid. It was. Kick the damn FG and make it a one score game. Yeah, it was the exciting, sexy move, and part of me liked it, but dumb, D-U-M-B DUMB. Players bailed out the coach on that one.

#80 was killing our secondary from the slot. Based on what I had seen till then, I called his deep conversion on 3rd down and his touchdown before the ball was even snapped. Apparently our guys have problems with the single step out and then post move. C’mon guys, that’s basic coverage 101. #8 for us was definitely having issues, all day long. He’s got work to do or he won’t be starting next week. I noticed we had BOTH the slot CB and safety lining up over him after his TD.

Brissett settled down and got in a grove late. Hopefully that was the Brissett we’ll see from here on out, and the early version was the too hyped-up and shaking-off-rust version.

Line play was shaky and inconsistent. Brilliant at times, other times, not so much. It appears we simply wore them down late, but then, that’s what we were supposed to do.

Team never quit. They stayed together and on task, made the plays they needed to win the game. Brissett looked to be a steady hand, calming influence. Definitely the team leader, on offense, anyway.

Defense needs playmakers. Other than a few big hits, nothing really stands out. Most of the big plays were due to GSU errors. From body language, didn’t really perceive a leader on the field. Gonna need both playmakers and a leader or two to develop, pronto. Fernandez, maybe, eventually?… But he is a freshman.

Team was good, if not great, in the red zone. Both O and D.

Like what I saw from #28 Samuels. From his build, I was like “wtf” when he got that jet sweep, then I saw him move with the ball. We just saw glimpes and flashes, but the Wolfpack could have something with #28. I hadn’t been following the team much this offseason, and hadn’t even heard of the dude, but I talked to friend after the game and he told me Samuels was a freshman that the coaches wanted to redshirt, but he just kept making plays in practice and proved too good to keep on the sidelines.

Scantling changed numbers, from #1 to #84. Receiving corps did a good job. Hines was as expected. Think the search party is still out looking for Underwood. His most exciting move was jumping up and down, waving his arms, on that last drive when GSU failed to have anyone line up on him on the far side (GSU side) of the field. GSU immediately called a time-out.

Running game was good overall. Thorton had several nice runs but not a lot of carries. I’m assuming his YCP avg was good though. Not sure what all that means. Even when running well, the offense sputttered in the first half. Late in the second half it probably had more to do with GSU being worn out. We’ll see.

Happy for the win. All things considered, a good first game – A win, a little adversity, clutch plays, end of game rally, a game winning drive, team bonding, and a coach bailed out by his players.

Oh, Sade needs to wake up his leg for touchbacks before the 4th quarter.

Put a check mark by game 1, but a LONG way to go.

Tough loss for GSU. That one’s gonna hurt for a while. If there QB doesn’t get hurt (and replaced by 13 on that one drive), likely a different result.

plain and simple GS lost by going to prevent style defense for 90% of the 4 quarter.

Yeah, kinda, maybe… They were giving up the 4-7 yard hitch and curl, but we still had to run and execute it. Remember last year? Remember TOB? That’s not a given. And we still hit the down field play when we needed to.

I give major props to the D for bending but not breakig and forcing that fumble. Without that, we are toast. They kept us in it and then the O got going. Agree that GS fatigue was a major factor. And their QB going down didn’t help. Good win. We needed it.

I will say this…I completely agreed with Doeren’s call in going for it.

That said, I had two plays in mind for Canada, but he chose neither. Roll out, or straight Wildcat.
Instead,he loaded the backfield and went direct snap to the single block weakside. Not a real good call in short yardage, IMO.

My idea of 42 with a safey is knocking that slot guy around. That might have helped Wright out. To his credit, he came back and made a couple of nice run stoppers.

Good job in the second half, something to build on, with mistakes that can be corrected. Nevertheless a win. Funny enough I told the people behind me, at the game, the final would be 24-23. Guess I was right?

Better teams than us struggled mightily this weekend. A loss today and there’s no chance the season isn’t a disaster. An ugly win keeps some semblance of hope alive that some things could work out to get bowl eligible.

And really, isn’t that the realistic goal this year? That’s what we’ve been told is the reason for the unfavorable out of conference scheduling.

Great minds can disagree on the 4th down call. We had momentum, we were driving, GSU wearing down. Everything going Wolfpack’s way. Plenty of time to get the next 7 if we took 3 there. GSU had just stopped us on the play before. I saw no reason to provide GSU an opportunity for a game changing/saving play at that point. Comment I made at time, before we knew if kicking or going for it, was that it’s dumb not to take the 3 and make it a one score game, but… IF going for it, make damn well sure its a play you have 99% confidence in and have been setting up. What we got was… bleh.

Took GSU miscues for the Wolfpack to pull out the win after that. But they did, in dramatic and team building fashion. So in the end, worked out best the way it went down.

All this based on watching live, in stands. Could potentially change opinion after watching dvr, but doubt it.

Watched the game from the West Stand….fortunately the sun moves….so it finally got cooler.

Never had a positive feeling about the game….we were also a step late and a dollar short. Finally, at the beginning of 4QTR, it seems like Old Mo moved our way.

Then, after the “Shoulda; Woulda; Coulda” call on the 4th & Goal, Fate stepped in and they fumbled and WE HAD A CHANCE…

Then, I had a “We’re gonna pull this out” feeling. Should have left then and bought Lottery tickets.

It was a great game.

What really impressed me, other than the effort of the team….was Coach’s comments in the Post Presser. He was candid and honest and did NOT speak in “Coach Speak”. He pulled no punches and also stated exactly WHAT he told the team. I have not heard a Coach talk that candidly before.

We will have some tough losses and some (hopefully) great wins….and I hope we keep Coach D for a LONG, LONG time…..

We’ll take the win. It was one bad first half, but State got a couple breaks in the second half and got it done. Lots of bounces didn’t go our way early. Good to see the team keep fighting. Much improvement needed, but at least we are 1-0 instead of 0-1.